One pile of Oak for the construction of the hi fi cabinet I mentioned earlier in this thread. Just been using the jointer plane to produce the long joints, the blade being slightly concave means that a couple of very light pass produces a seamless join.

These three planks will form one of the vertical sides of the cabinet. Without cramps or glue, the join lines are nigh on invisible.

The people who do this successfully don’t publicise the deals of the drying process. However it removes some four gallons of water per cubic foot and shrinks by up to a third of volume. Given it must be quarter sawn to start with, the attrition rate would be high unless you knew what you were doing.

Even the finished product that I have will require removal of about ten percent of the thickness to achieve flatness.

It is more dense than Oak, up there with tropical hardwoods like purple heart and with a beauty that exceeds blackwood and ebony, IMHO.